Technical failure in propulsion system of the cruise ship Queen Victoria canceled a Mediterranean cruise of the vessel. Thee engineers suffered serious damage in one of the propulsion units and the ship was able to operate with half speed only, which caused interruption of the voyage. The officers informed all the passengers about the technical malfunction and navigated the cruise ship to the home port of Southampton. The 16 night cruise in Mediterranean was canceled as the engineers of the company were not able to repair the propulsion unit. The new part was ordered and the ship will enter in the dockyard for repair and inspection. The maintenance is planned to take between 5 and 7 days, which definitely means that the operator from Cunard Cruises will cancel the future voyage and to brake the holiday of thousands of customers.

Collision between the bulk carrier Sunny Horizon and the LPG carrier Dl Salvia at Temasek Fairway in Singapore, caused water pollution with more than 60.00 tons of fuel. The accident happened on 700 meters east of Sultan Shoal because of the technical failure of the steering gear of the bulk carrier, hitting the bunker tank of the LPG carrier and all the fuel spilled at sea. There are no serious injuries of the both crews, but several patrol and anti-pollution crafts are operating for cleaning of the fuel from the water. The two ships were towed to the anchorage near Singapore and will be repaired and inspected before releasing to continue their voyages. The local authorities reported that currently do not expect serious consequences for the environment after the accident and the oil will be completely cleared. The port state control will perform full investigation over the accident and circumstances, which caused it.

The container ship Amsterdam Bridge caught fire in India. The vessel was carrying dangerous chemicals on board operating from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to Sri Lanka, when during the passage through Mumbai Bay fire started in one of the cargo holds. The officers on board reacted immediately and made dangerous maneuvers to the anchorage without any visibility from the thick smoke. The ship send distress signal to Mumbai port authorities and requested assistance. The fire fighting tugs arrived at the scene of the accident and tried to get control of the fire. The fire spread to the neighbor containers and is still not extinguished by the fire tugs. All the crew was evacuated during the salvage operations and was reported that there are no seriously injured people and no reports for pollution in the region. On board of the cargo ship there are several dangerous cargo containers, which are containing chemicals and dangerous goods. The fire fighting is still in progress and there is no information about the cargo type of the burning containers.

The general cargo ship Glorious Kauri is the newest and most modern ship of the maritime transport company Peony Shipholding SA. The vessel is really high effective and profitable, as on board are installed the latest developments of the Naikai Zosen Corporation. The overall length of the general cargo ship Glorious Kauri is 184.75 m, while the length between perpendiculars is 177.00 m. The beam of the vessel is 30.60 m, the depth is 14.50 m and the maximum draft is 9.60 m. The dry cargo ship is constructed with optimized cargo holds, which have improved capacity and strength. The deadweight of the general cargo ship is 38,200 DWT and the gross tonnage is 23,857 GRT. The ship Glorious Kauri has large cargo holds and total grain capacity of 46,315 cubic meters. The ship is designed with double hull technology, increasing the structural performance and stability. The general cargo ship is designed with modern design with large hatches. Glorious Kauri has five cargo holds, which have wider hatches and electro-hydraulic cover system. On the deck there are also four cranes with capacity of 30.0 tons each, which speed up the cargo handling process in the ports. The general cargo ship is really effective and environmental, combining the modern technology, reliable engineering and large capacity on board. The vessel can transport various types of cargoes, such as coals, grain, ore, sulfur, cement, bales and even lengthy boxes. The cargoes can be loaded into the cargo holds, but there is ability containers and boxed to be handled on the main deck too. The cargo holds have double shell over them, which disturb mixing or damage of the cargo even if the internal plates are destroyed.

Azamara Quest will be repaired and partitially refurbished in November 2012 in Cadiz, announced from Azamara Club Cruises. The cruise ship will be drydocked and the hull and superstructure will be repaired by the damages and will be refreshed with new dark blue facelift. According to the schedule the ship will enter into Navantia Shipyard on 7th November 2012 and will spend eight days in the drydock. The plan is the hull and super structure to be recovered from rust and slight damage, getting a new impressive facelift. A partial refurbishment will be done to the lobby and the VIP suites on board. After the repair the cruise ship Azamara Quest will start a 13-night cruise in Madeira and Canary Islands, which will present the new look of the vessel. In December the vessel will head to South America, where will start the next season and will have several voyages in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and etc.

The general cargo ship Minh Tuan 68 was arrested in Philippines, because of carrying of undocumented cargo of rice. The vessel was anchored in the area a few miles off Legazpi port in Albay province, waiting to enter into the harbor, when port state control arrived and started inspection on board. The inspectors found a few safety violations and missing documents for the cargo on board. The ship Minh Tuan 68 was detained in the anchorage before full investigation of the problem. The general cargo ship was on route from Vietnam to Legazpi City, when compliant against the vessel was deposed in the Philippine’s Bureau of Customs. On board of the ship there were 1,800 tons of rice, documents for which were not found. If the master in not able to present the documents for the cargo, all the rice will be seized and the ship operator will be fined. The local authorities started investigation over the case and about the traffic of undeclared cargo from Vietnam to Philippines.

Gloriosa Lily is the new bulk carrier off the maritime transportation company Golden Helm Shipping Co SA. The vessel is definitely one of the most modern and most environmental ships operating in the world. The bulk carrier was built in April 2012 in the shipyard of Sanoyas Shipbuilding Corporation and delivered to the shipowner a few days later. The ship Gloriosa Lily has overall length of 245.00 m, length between perpendiculars of 238.00 m and beam of 43.00 m. The bulk carrier has depth of 21.65 m and maximum summer draft of 15.40 m. Such measurements allow the vessel to have large cargo capacity and good flexibility of operations. The deadweight of the cargo ship is 119,488 DWT and the gross tonnage is 64,642 GRT. The Handy Cape bulk carrier has total seven cargo holds and total capacity of 135,717 cubic meters. The vessel has improved capacity, large cargo holds and shallow draft. This improvement of the ship’s hull allows operations in various ports with restrictions of the depth and makes the operations of the vessel more flexible. The bulk carrier is anticipating trade expansion for iron ore and coal in the modern cargo markets. The design of the hull has also a lot of improvements and modern changes, which decrease the water resistance and give more power to the vessel during operations. The bow and the bulb design are with sharper design, which is more effective in heavy sea. The ballast and fuel tanks are integrated into the double hull and double bottom giving better stability and also covering the new IMO standards.

The Brazilian company Vale, which is world’s leader in mining operations and ore carrying contracted a deal to sell 10 VLOCs (Very Large Ore Carriers) to the Turkish maritime transport company Polaris Shipping. The price of the deal is 600,000,000 USD and the delivery of the vessel will be done fictively next month. In fact the Brazilian mining giant Vale will charter the same ships for operations and actually the maritime transportation of iron ore will be outsourced to the Turkish company. The amount from the deal will stabilize the financial situation of the company and will help for modernizing of the mining technology and research of new fields. The outsourcing of the maritime transport will give to the mining giant ability to operate with enough capacity vessels and to stay away from management of large fleet.

The crude oil platform Scarabeo 8, which is positioned in the Barents Sea, suffered water ingress in the ballast tanks on the starboard. After the accident the platform got keep and the list reached 6 degrees. The accident happened during heavy sea and stormy weather in the region, which caused 2-meters waves and wind with speed of 20 knots. Currently on board of the crude oil platform Scarabeo 8 there are 140 crew members, who are ready to abandon the vessel if the list continue to increase. The water ingress was caused by malfunction the ballast system and broken faucet. Two supply vessels were monitoring the situation and was ready to evacuate all the people on board. After the weather calmed down the engineers started repair works and after a few works the ballast tanks were emptied and the faucet was fixed. After the problem was fixed the platform continued operations and drilling for crude oil in Barents Sea.

The product tanker Chance got failure in the steering gear during a voyage though Flushing Road. The ship was not able to maneuver and caused danger for collision with the vessels in vicinity. The problem with the steering gear was caused by technical malfunction of the rudder. The crew of the product tanker Chance dropped anchor near the waterway and asked for tug service. The tug arrived at the anchorage and towed the vessel to Vlissingen, where the ship was docked for full repair. The local authorities requested full survey and inspection of the product tanker, once it is repaired.